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During the twelve years prior to the Partition of India, Jawaharlal Nehru was one of the foremost leaders of the Indian National Congress and wielded considerable influence over the politics of the organization. However, he did not by any means dictate its members. The Congress organization was collective in its leadership, rather than monolithic. Nehru’s views on the communal problem can be understood by analysing the changing pattern of Indian politics, the pressures operating within and on the Congress, and the persistent conflict between the Congress and the Indian government. Nehru...

During the twelve years prior to the Partition of India, Jawaharlal Nehru was one of the foremost leaders of the Indian National Congress and wielded considerable influence over the politics of the organization. However, he did not by any means dictate its members. The Congress organization was collective in its leadership, rather than monolithic. Nehru’s views on the communal problem can be understood by analysing the changing pattern of Indian politics, the pressures operating within and on the Congress, and the persistent conflict between the Congress and the Indian government. Nehru considered the communal problem part of the challenge of the All India Muslim League; for him, communalism was one aspect of the total situation which nationalist India had to address. This chapter examines the attitudes and actions of Nehru, as well as the Congress leadership, to the challenge of Muslim separatism in the context of the relationship between Congress and the All India Muslim League, and that between Congress and the government.